Splinterlands Challenge of the Week: Sabre Shark

This week's Splinterlands Challenge of the Week was to showcase the Sabre Shark, from (unsurprisingly!) the WaterSplinter.

The Sabre Shark is a classic common Beta card, price optimum level is 9/10 where he gets his his max 4 damage, with a fast 5 speed and OK health at 5 points, and of course, the shark is a sneak attack, which somehow seems appropriate - I mean that's what they do right?!?

NB Any card which does more damage for its mana as standard is pretty decent IMO, which is probably why this card isn't that cheap for a common card, I was lucky enough to have been able to take advantage of the TH sale to scratch mine up to a level 9.

This battle features a tidy victory with the humble Sabre Shark.

The Rule Set and Line Up

  • Mana 19 - which means you have to use at least a few low mana cards!
  • Magic hits armour, which means there's less of an advantage to playing magic which is water's main strength of attack
  • Broken arrows - no real advantage here for the shark, but I guess it means one can't play the usual Crustacean, so the shark is a nice 3 mana alternative!
    Screenshot 20201122 at 18.42.24.png

Summoner - Bortus

  1. Lord A - just the best tank, especially when there's no ranged attacks.
  2. Ooze - really just a blast defender
  3. The Mermaid - a great card - strengthen (which nullified my opponent's weaken in this match) and triage - useful for the Shark if you get a thorns defence.
  4. The Shark - sneak often works well in low mana battles, protected in the middle as this is my main damage card.
  5. The Ice Pixie - useful with magic hits armour as low health, and flying, some protect against sneak, and shatter as I was anticipating shields given the magic hits armour!
  6. The albatross for tank heal - weak against sneak, but something had to go at the back.

Did my strategy work?

Beautifully, to see it in action click here!

  • Round 1 - a good start for me - reflect kicks into gear weakening that Elemental, and Ooze soaks up some blast, staying alive thanks to strengthen. Useful sneak miss on my albatross meaning Lord A gets some useful healing at least for one round! He loses his chicken AND the shark takes out his goblin. Ooze also gets triaged.
  • Round 2 - The Shark Misses the Elemental, damn flying, and this time the miner gets my Albatross.
  • Round 3 - The Shark now takes out the Elemental, having been weakened by Lord A's reflect, the Pixie's shield protects from sneak, but I lost my Lord A. Ooze looking vulnerable up front!
  • Round 4 - He loses his Cerberus straight off the mark, nice! Bit lucky there as I went first, so he didn't heal!
  • Round 5 - now it's all over, the miner falls!

How important was The Shark?

Well he finished off two of the monsters from the back with cumulative damage of 5, so very useful!

And he worked well as part of a team, with most monsters doing what I'd hoped, with a bit of luck!

  • Lord A reflected, thorned and weakened
  • Ooze soaked up sneak
  • The Mermaid triaged Ooze and kept him alive longer with strengthen
  • The shark took out two monsters with sneak
  • The pixie protected against sneak and that 2 damage came in really handy too to take out Cerberus
  • The albatross, well flying worked for one round's worth of dodge and he did heal once!

So over all, a good result for me with the shark doing his bit!

HOWEVER, I think my opponent helped me out - they didn't 'play the rule set' at all - I get the feeling they just loaded their deck with high damage cards, and maybe I got a bit lucky as my defence worked perfectly against their attacks.

Is the Sabre Shark Worth it?

The problem you've got with the shark is that if you want one you're probably going to have get a maxed one which will cost you $24 - damn shame as a level 9 which is practically as good would cost you much less!

The problem is there are no level 9s available and it'd cost you more to build one than a maxed shark as the single cards and lower levelled cards are more expensive per unit.

And £24 is a LOT of money to play for a card that does one thing only - SNEAK! But that four damage can be devastating in low mana battles!

But would I buy one for $24?

NO - there are several decent untamed cards from the water splinter which are cheaper maxed - The Ice Pixie, Naga Windmaster (especially this!) Even that monster Harpoonist dude that does 6 damage is cheaper and that's an epic card!

So I'd go for those first - I got lucky in a sale and I think I got mine for < $10, which really WAS worth it, but now there are better deals.

I'm still glad I got mine though!

If you don't yet play Splinterlands, why not give it a go?

Anyone using my referral link will receive a free rare card!



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10 comments
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I've built my Shark up and it is useful as it does a lot of damage for the mana as well as having good speed. My summoners are only up to level 5, so I am just maxing out the other cards for what I can use with that.

!BEER

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I think level 5 is a good optimum, for the price! The shark is nice to have in your arsenal, especially for those low mana battles!

!ENGAGE 20

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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I've recently picked up Magic: The Gathering again... and came across this card the other day

shark.jpg

maybe your shark post here is a sign for me to build around it.

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I don't know anything about Magic the Gathering afraid, @slobberchops might be a better person to comment!

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You should totally give magic arena a try, it's PC/OSX, and free to play, pay to win. Definitely enjoyable.

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Thanks for sharing! - @marianaemilia

Your Shabre Shark is very fast and has very high damage! A single hit to eliminate the dangerous Phoenix and his victory was guaranteed. congratulations.

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